One in five Australians failed to vote. Why is the requirement to attend the ballot box being ignored by so many?
Is it time to change the law and, if so, in what way?
Is the Electoral Commission right to excuse older people who fail to vote?

Where did you pull that number from?

Even if it is an accurate number, it is meaningless unless we understand how the numbers break down.

How many failed because the process is too difficult to get right (unintentionally spoiled papers)

Or because they withheld their vote deliberately (informal)

Or because they weren't enrolled properly (system failure)

Or... etc.

If there really are large numbers of people withholding their vote deliberately, I say i) good on 'em and ii) perhaps it is time to join the list of civilized countries where voting is not mandatory.

Electoral Commission figures Freediver
As I understand it Pericles this is the difference between the number of people who are enrolled to vote and the number of people who had their names marked off the roll. I may be wrong but I believe the informal votes were included in the latter figure so we are looking at people who did not get their names marked off the roll.
I queried this figure because it seemed so high but apparently it is correct...still seems strange to me - which is why I started the thread because I am still puzzled by it

Can you give a link?

Voting is a responsibility, not a priviledge. Voting is an irrational act if given the choice, due to the effort required and the low liklihood of your vote making a difference to you. By making it optional, you confine government to representing the irrational.

Thanks for answering Freediver's question, Communicat. Mine would have been exactly the same.

Where specifically did this claimed Electoral Commission figure come from? Is/was it on a web page anywhere, and if so have you downloaded or taken a screenshot of that page? Can you give us a link? Did it come from a news report? Did you see it in printed form with your own eyes? Did it relate to this Federal election, or was it in connection with a by-election at some previous time?

Your claim, if true, is of immense significance. At previous Federal elections the number of the enrolled who appear to have failed to vote has been of the order of 5% of the total number of names carried on the roll. One in five persons from amongst those who are electorally enrolled represents around a 20% apparent failure to vote. A huge change!

AEC research done in 1989 revealed that only around 85% of Australians eligible for electoral enrolment claimed in fact to be enrolled. There was a particularly marked propensity among the newly eligible, the 18 to 20 year olds, not to have effected their enrolment. If Ed Coper (the Campaigns Coordinator for GetUp! Action for Australia), together with outgoing Special Minister of State, Gary Nairn, are to be believed, this situation has persisted up until the present day.

Your claim, if substantiated, when taken together with the estimates of the proportion of the eligible population who fail to enroll would mean that approaching 35% of electorally eligible Australians are not exercising their electoral rights. This is not too far from the 58% voter turn-out of 1922, before voting, and later enrolment, became compulsory.

The big problem is that it appears that when the actual enrolment figures are compared with estimates of the number of electorally eligible Australians derived from official population statistics, enrolment appears to be close to, or in excess of, 100% of the possible. Which sets of figures are correct, and why do they differ? They should give the same answer!